


Saoshyant

by VectorMaximus



Category: Fate/Zero, Fate/stay night - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Op Shirou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-20
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-04 10:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11553285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VectorMaximus/pseuds/VectorMaximus
Summary: When the grail reaches out to aid Shirou in the fire, the path of the world and the 5th Grail War of Fuyuki is forever changed. One-Shot plot bunny beginning.





	Saoshyant

**Author's Note:**

> A/N – Essentially this is just a short little opening that I had about a potential plot with a significantly stronger Shirou… I’m by no means a good writer, but I thought that I should give it a shot.

Fire and death permeated the air as he slowly walked down the place that once had been… a street? Or perhaps it was rather a building, torn from the earth and turned to rubble in the convulsions that shook all Fuyuki. It mattered little, there was no point in thinking on what had been. He could only walk forward, away from this, towards salvation, towards… where?

_One foot in front of the other… just keep walking._ He thought this as the world slowly passed him by. There was a branch, somehow still not lit despite the inferno that surrounded them. Cars piled up, smoking as the putrid gas of melted plastic filled the air, choking the very life of it.

But worse still was the smell of human flesh, putrid and foul, wafting through the air till it was like a humid day where everything is permeated by the presence. He had steeled his soul as he walked past those burning and those dying; his survival the only thing that had every crossed his mind, so infused by primal terror. Yet now his steps were growing shorter and shorter. His soul weighed ever heavier beneath the weight of those he had abandoned to the fire – or worse, to the sludge. 

He did not know what the sludge was, but it was wrong, in the intrinsic way that you instantly know, the feeling that the world is off for its mere existence. It did not belong. He no longer feared the flames around him – merely the sludge even now chasing after him, spreading throughout the city. 

Shirou (was that the boy’s name? He could barely remember anymore. All there was in his mind was fire and death, and a terrible weight upon him) had seen things in the sludge. Men consumed by it, mutated into horrible things, others descending into their very base instincts, to kill, to mate, but mostly to kill. They ate each other and crawled at each other, until there was nothing left of them but a beast deprived of everything good and noble in man. The fire was a far nobler and kinder fate, he decided, so he ran into it.

But he was untouched by the fire. Leaping through them with the strength of a man who was condemned to die yet ran to live, the boy was not touched by a single one of them, but rather the flames abated and stalled the sludge as it followed behind. You see, the boy was a mage. Untrained, yes, unknowing, indubitably, but the fact remained that he was. But if untrained, why then did the fire heed his panic and aid him, when it had mercifully consumed so many to spare them the sludge?

The reason was that this boy was empty – the sludge and the horrors he had seen had destroyed whatever fragile sense of self there once was. But where once this world, broken and flawed, would be filled with swords, it was instead doused by the remaining light of the Greater Grail. 

Kiritsugu Emiya had made no wish for the grail to grant. And Kirei Kotomine had no wish left to say. But this boy had desired with all his heart to survive, and so the remaining will of the original Greater Grail filled him with its divine light, for it could respond only to a mage or a master. But even now that gift was becoming a vain one – energized or not, this was still a boy of under 10 seeking to escape all the evils of this world. And the Evils did indeed weigh on him.

He saw more and more people die as he walked pass, barely able to keep going. The energy of the Grail had all but left him now, and he could scarcely think anymore. He would die here then, another poor soul lost to the sludge and the fires. He prayed to no god in particular that the fires would take him first.

In the heavens a single speck opened up between the clouds as he finally lost what remained of his strength and collapsed. Gazing out from the ruins and rubble, he used the last of his strength to raise his arm up towards that single star that gazed down from heaven at him emotionlessly. 

This… this is it, I suppose, he thought as he tried to grasp the very stars in his one hand. His mind flashed back to the world he had seen back there. Man gleefully killing man, children eaten. Truly, was this what mankind was? Perhaps this is better, to die like this, he concluded, as he began to close his eyes, tired and empty.

Yet even as he fell, a hand reached out and grasped his – desperately, full of terror, and full of wonder. Opening his eyes, he looked up at a man, of dark hair and grim countenance, smiling as if he was witnessing the most beautiful thing in all creation. Silver streams ran down his face in the fading light of the fire as he rubbed Shirou’s hand upon his face. 

“I’m so glad… I’m so glad someone is still alive.” The man said, his voice choking with emotion – joy? Why was this man so glad? Because he had found him? Was this truly happening? _Why? In this hell on earth, why would he be so glad to find one of the people so fallen and depraved? I left so many to die, I’m not better than those that were consumed._ He had no strength left, he couldn't even tilt his head to look at the man better. He could only lay there as the man pulled him closer and held him like he was the last line to life itself. 

In the man’s face could perhaps only be described the word ‘Salvation’, that feeling of complete and utter grace that befalls those that have been saved completely when they never expected to be. In that face, Shirou felt something within him stir again. The emptiness was not quite so empty anymore.

_I wish… I wish I could make others smile as he smiles. To feel the joy that he feels in saving me. To show how good people can be. How I wish…_ going limp in the clenched grip of Emiya Kiritsugu, the Magus Killer, Shirou fell into a deep sleep.

Kiritsugu noticed this immediately, gasping lightly as he felt the boy he had found go limp in his arms. “No…. no!” He said, chanting like a man possessed. “I refuse! I will not allow it!” Reaching deep within himself, he felt it, the one thing that might save him. Willing it with some of his last prana, the scabbard of Artoria Pendragon appeared dazzling and splendid in his hands. Holding the ancient artifact above Shirou’s chest, he shoved it in.

At once, the scabbard went to work trying to save its host. In the emptiness of his very being, Avalon planted it roots, but to its surprise encountered the embers of another divine work burning softly. Avalon, unwilling and unable to harm its host by conflicting with the other force, ceded the core of the boy to the embers, who became a small fire now that they were shielded by the Everdistant Utopia. 

The scabbard began using the rest of its remaining strength to rebuild the destroyed boy. Yet everywhere it rebuilt, swiftly followed the fire, reshaping the boy, changing him, strengthening him. Where Avalon left ‘Sword’, this flame wrought ‘Divinity’, being born of the something lifted from the very Root of Akasha itself. Initally the two songs sung in discord, each one striving to dominate the boy’s existence that would be. Yet, as they pushed and pulled, they grew to understand each other. ‘Divinity’ and ‘Sword’ came together and in finally they sung in union as they began to finish their duty. Divinity filled Sword with many designs and dreams that Sword would never have dreamed, of armors and shields, of ships and of men. In its turn Sword taught the Divine the pains of Man; of their sorrows, their toils, their never ending hope, and the crystalized song know as Glory that once it had known. 

Finally the task was finished, but what once had been an empty boy was now something else – where before a few weak circuits had been, many strong ones now roared to life, bearing in them flaming ichor. It would be a lie to say he was a newborn God – Sword had tempered Divinity enough for this to be so. But to say he was a mere man was also a lie. He was rather, something that had not been seen in this world for an Age – a true demigod. And his song would be salvation, and he would bring Renewal to the world broken. Angra Mainyu’s actions had brought despair and ruin to Fuyuki, but from the pain and the grief had been born someone who could set things right. A new King, a new Knight. A Saoshyant.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N – Ok, so explanation time. Essentially Shirou wished on the Grail to ‘Survive’ and so the remaining power from the original Greater Grail filled him, trying to grant his wish. But this is such an inconsequential amount it doesn’t really do much in the grand scheme… or so it would seem. Avalon’s intervention fans the flames, so to speak. Sheltering the last embers of that power allow it gain root in Shirou and give him a dual origin- Sword and Divinity. This should give him a B+ Rank in Divinity (if we were talking servant perameters). 
> 
> In addition, the power of ‘Divinity’ rebuilds Shirou while Avalon heals him, greatly increasing his magic circuits. Divinity’s influence also means that Shirou will be capable of tracing objects other than swords, nearly on the level of the first magic (as in he can make them permanent without Gaia interfering), but his resources are still finite, unlike the First Magic, which to my understanding has basically infinite power. UBW will obviously be changed from this influence, but Shirou would still have it (basically Shirou would be able to completely duplicate divine artifiacts, but they would only at a C or D rank unless in UBW, where they would still be degraded a rank). He is still ‘broken’ even with the added origin/element. He wants to bring salvation to the people as Kiritsugu was given salvation that day.
> 
> Saoshyant – For those who don’t know, the Saoshyant is the Zoroastrian Messiah, and it means ‘One who brings Benefit’, the one who will save mankind and bring about the renewal of mankind and the world. Since Angra Mainyu is the primary antagonist in the grand scheme of the grail war, I thought it would be really interesting to engineer a Saoshyant to face him and restore the grail.
> 
> Servant Stats for a full power Shirou  
> Strength – C+  
> Agility – C  
> Luck – A+  
> Endurance – B+  
> Mana – EX  
> NP – Varies  
> Unique Skills  
> Divine Tracing – an upgrade to standard tracing, able to replicate divine artifacts, though only at rank C or D outside of UBW. Even in UBW, his replications cannot go above A++ (so Gil’s Ea would still win against his traced Ea). Normal Projections merely suffer a minus instead of a rank down.  
> Ashes of the Gods – as the last Demigod since the Age of the Gods ended, Mystic Codes respond very easily to Shirou. In addition, this also functions as a boost to his Charisma, since people can intrinsically tell from the aura around Shirou that he is someone to be respected and trusted.  
> Noble Phantasms:  
> Unlimited Blade Works – Shirou’s Reality Marble. The same as in canon except for the above mentioned changes.  
> Flames of Zoroaster – A very dangerous technique involving releasing the divine flames that compose the ‘core’ of himself. This can potentially kill him, depending on how long he keeps it going. The damage of this attack scales depending on the alignment of the target – on a ‘good’ target it would be D- to C+ rank, whereas on a truly evil foe, it would be A to EX  
> So… yeah, there is no plans to ever continue this. But I thought I would share it anyway. I know really strong Shirou isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I hope you enjoyed it for what’s its worth.


End file.
